Knights Against the Night Part 31

Dead.

Suddenly a lot became clear.

She was dead.

Who? Bolt didn't know.

Did it explain Chester? Freddie? Maybe. Well yes, to be prefectly honest, they were mourning.

Not everything, but some of it.

Was this why he hadn't been given the file? Was this why everything about this family seemed off? Was this why there was such sadness in this household?

Some of it. He didn't have the full story yet.

He didn't have any of the story yet.

Who was she? Why did Freddie get Chester? Why was Chester so determined to protect Freddie, even at a cost to himself?

They had covered what to do when a child died. It had been glossed over.

Guilt fluttered in his gut. The mouse he had spoken to had some of the same darkness in him that Chester carried.

If your assignment died, if you were abandonned, if you could, return to the workshop.

Return. Teach. Take command over the youngsters. There was plenty of jobs that could do done. Plenty of gaps.

So few toys returned.

Did the others stay to watch over siblings? Did they descend into the Darkness? Did they give up and die?

Maybe.

It didn't make sense.

Why would anyone make that choice?

What would happen if they didn't?

Some radicals in the academy thought that if your assignment died, you were praitaclly dead. Might as well lie down and die.

There was so much he didn't understand.

Bolt didn't know what to think.

She was dead. Chester was still here, still fighting, slowly losing himself to the dark.

There had to be a way of stopping it. There had to be a way of saving the old rabbit.

Bolt thought long and hard before making a decision.  He needed advice. He had to ask.

He had a letter to write.

Knights Against the Night Part 30

They never covered this in the academy. Not in any of the lessons Bolt attended, not in any of the books he had studied, not a word from any of his teachers.

There was a shadow in Chester's eyes, a shadow that had been there all along and Bolt hadn't seen.

"I don't understand." It was several days later, and they had barely spoken. Chester had retreated behind his masks, and Bolt had no idea how to talk to him, not after seeing what he had seen.

Chester looked over to him, his eyes dark althrough his face appeared calm, his ears were held high.

"You are rather young." His voice was calm, almost teasing if not for the string in his voice.

"Will I...?" Bolt asked, he had to know. 

Chester's expression darkened. "They didn't cover this in the academy?"

"I... no." Bolt shifted, "I don't think so...?"

Chester huffed, looked away. "Then they are sending people out to get slaughtered."

Bolt flinched and looked away. Chester growled at him, before forcing himself to lie down.

“I am dying.” Chester said, so mildly and with a forced calm, a tone Bolt was starting to recognise as the rabbit barely hanging on to his temper.

Oh.

“Why?” Bolt asked, then clasped his paw over his mouth.

Chester didn’t react, staring at the ceiling as if it held the answers.

“My magic is running out.”

Again the voice was calm, but Bolt didn’t believe it for a second.

“But...” Bolt hesitated, he hadn’t paid too much attention to that in the academy, registering that the initial investment of magic from the workshop was enough to last for decades.

“How old are you?” Bolt asked, he knew Chester was a hand me down, but...

“Seventeen.” Chester replied.

Decades. More than one. Not more than two?

“Can’t we...” Bolt gestured helplessly, there must be a way.

Suddenly the house seemed much more sparse than before, much too big for the small lives that lived there.

Chester’s approaching death seemed too sudden, too real, it made his head spin.

“Recharge me?” Chester asked, a broken laugh breaking free. “How? She’s dead. Gone. No more.”

Knights Against the Night Part 29

Beano walked away, his heart breaking and the last of his hope dimming.

He was going to walk out to the wastelands.

He was going to leave.

Mars would be okay. He would be fine. He would be great.

Beano was just holding him back.

They thought they were fine. Fine. Be that way. It wasn't his concern anymore.

It wasn't.

Let the dark win.

He would take them out, as many as he could. He would have to be strong.

He drew his blade, the blade was dark, not a speck of light.

There had been no improvements, not since he arrived.

He had even lost the light he had left once he was dragged out the dark by Mars.

Mars. Mars was getting better.

Mars would be fine.

He stood on the edge, watching the snow come down.

Mars would be fine.

A car wheeled up to him. "You're Beano?" It asked.

Beano glanced down, the car a bright cherry red against the drifts of snow.

"Yes." Beano answered, before glancing back out to the snow.

"Letter for you." He popped up a envelope.

Beano took it in confusion.

Glanced it over.

The car was gone.

Bolt. The kid. The baby bear.

Beano hesitated.

Reading the letter again.

A light flickered down the blade.

Beano frowned. glancing at the blade that had gone dark again.

He was needed?

Why was the kid asking him?

It wouldn't hurt to answer a letter, would it?

And Mars could check it.

Planned in mind, Beano nodded decisively, walking back inside.

Knights Against the Night Part 28

Freddie didn't seemed surprised to find Chester on his floor in the morning, he scooped up the rabbit and set him in his usual place beside the bed, giving him a pat of the head before heading down to breakfast with Bolt.

Bolt worried.

Freddie seemed somewhat cheerful after spending yesterday with his mother. He didn't babble like some kids, but there was a small smile on his face and cheered Bolt up no end, warming him inside.

Freddie was safe, that was the important thing.

Safe and happy, which made a change.

Mum smiled too, not as forced as her previous smiles had seemed, and there was pancakes for breakfast.

Before leaving, Freddie actually ran up the stairs to put Bolt on his bed, and gave him a pat on the head, so unlike the previous days when he had sulked whenever having to leave Bolt behind.

Bolt sighed in relief when he left, hearing the humans leave the house.

He darted over to Chester, poking the old rabbit.

Suddenly he was seeing stars, as something hit him hard enough to send him bouncing off the side table, and tumbling over the floor.

"Kit!" Chester cried out, leaping after him. "don't..." the old rabbit rushed to his time, then hovered, flinching away from actually touching him.

"Don't do that..." Chester said, his voice thick with emotion.

Bolt stared up at the ceiling, his head spinning, "What happened?"

"You startled me." Chester admitted, backing away, not meeting Bolt's eyes.

"What...?" Bolt replied, sounding confused. He was confused.

"Sorry kid." It sounded like the words were dragged out of him, "It's been a long night."

Bolt sat up, rubbing his head. "But what did you do?" Bolt asked, staring at the shamed rabbit, "I didn't see..."

Chester blinked, looked over at the bear, his ears starting to lower from thier alert state.

"I swiped your footing out from under you and blasted you across the room." He stated calmly. A bit too calmly compared to the emotion landened talk of before.

"Oh." Bolt said, climbing to his feet. "Why?"

"You..." The rabbit threw up his arms, his ears going high again. "You startled me. I was resting. I was tired. You aren't safe!" The sudden anger startled Bolt, who felt like he was caught in the path of an oncoming car with no where to go before it ran him down.

"I'm... sorry?" Bolt offered, half questioningly.

Chester spun around and started pacing back and forth, grumbling under his breathe.

Bolt retreated back to the bed, standing beside it as he watched the old rabbit pace back and forth.

Something was wrong here. Something was wrong with this entire household.

"Chester?" Bolt asked after it appeared that he wasn't going to calm down any time soon. "The Portal?"

"Portals" Chester hissed, before stalking over to the and angrily checking beneath it.

Chester stalked around the room, checking all the usual spots and more beside.

Bolt retreated to the bed and his usual spot, watching as Chester found one and continued searching, finding another, and another.

Bolt's eyes widened, before they had always stopped when finding just the one, why was there more this time? Were there more this time?

Chester got darker and darker, red streaks started showing up in his fur, the anger clear in every move he made.

Finally he stopped, turning to face the window and hissed at it.

Then with just as much determination as Bolt had ever seen him display, the old Guardian stalked toward the patch of sunlight, the patches of red hissing as they burned away.

Finally, when Chester was almost back to his usual blue, just a trace of shadow about his eyes, the old rabbit turned to Bolt.

He grinned, more a baring of teeth, "And so we become monsters to fight monsters."

Knights Against the Night Part 27

There hadn't been much point in staying.

Beano had circled around the issue carefully.

He wasn't about to leave again. Not without saying anything. Not without preparing the bear for the eventuality. Mars was too jumpy for that.

"I didn't know." Beano had said carefully. "I didn't think you would take it so badly. I thought you didn't need me. I thought I was hurting you by staying."

Mars rarely let the small mouse out of his sight.

Except, Beano insisted.

Mars was paranoid.

The brightening of Beano's blade, that small flicker of light, of hope, was matched in the darkening of Mars'.

"I won't do it again. I won't leave without you."

It didn't help.

Beano still spent all his time going over dusty records, compiling infomation on who knew what.

Mars couldn't help. Wouldn't help.

Beano was lost in his own little world most of the time.

All his progress had stalled.

"I need to get away." Beano said a few days later.

Mars was starting to agree with him.

"Where are we going?" Mars asked, and Beano gave him a look.

"Not both of us. That's a bad idea." Beano had said, looking up from his books.

Mars felt his heart stop.

"No. Don't go."

Beano flinched.

"I can't stay here." The mouse curled in on himself.

"Then i'm coming with you."

Beano sighed. "Later then." Turning back to his books.

"Beano..."

"It's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"You never talk to me anymore." Mars said.

Beano looked up, considering. The light that had been there just a few days had faded into nothing.

"I know."

Mars glared, irritated beyond all reason.

"You could talk to me. You know you can trust me."

Beano faltered.

"I knew I could, once."

Mars couldn't hide his hurt.

"You can't anymore." Mars said, drawing away.

Beano's ears dropped.

"I thought..." Beano shook his head, "I'm making things worse for you, I'm dragging you down, you don't need my problems on top of your own."

"And what would you do if I told you that? How would you feel? If I was hiding things from you?"

Beano's eyes dropped, "I would tell you to stop being an idiot."